Episode 1600 (13 April 1998)
Synopsis Grant presents Tiffany with some attractive earrings to apologise for his recent odd behaviour. Jeff tries to get Alex to think about his religious doubts and to realise that his "crisis of faith" won't go away just because Kathy has, and he should face up to his dislike of the church's antiquated methods and overbearing and pointless rules governing his life. Ruth and Mark get a call asking them to foster another child, and Mark tells Ruth that they will have to turn it down, with things as they are at the moment. Ruth asks if this is no to fostering for ever. Phil moves back into the house and Simon is fed up with living in the squat so asks Phil what is happening to the flat and if he could rent it. Phil says fine, but it'll be the market rate, so quite expensive. Simon asks Chris if he'd consider flat sharing, and Chris makes a comment about it being just to save money. Lorna turns up at Phil's to apologise for her stupid suicide stunt. He tells her to go away as he's not interested, and that she makes him sick. Clare and Sonia decide some intervention is required to get Nigel and Julie back together, so Clare writes some fake love letters. Of course, Julie immediately shows them to Nigel who identifies Clare's writing, and they have a little chat with the children about their prank. This is bad timing, because Clare had requested that she stay at Josh's for the last week. Nigel and Julie are united in their sensible advice: that it will only make the separation harder, and after the kids' letters trick, they are certainly not getting any rewards. The police tell George the fire at his flat was definitely arson, so he tells Annie to be careful and that he'll get to the bottom of who did this, but meanwhile she will have to take care. Annie hands over the money for the market cellar, and George is surprised at the speed with which she found it, but says he'll get the contracts. Meanwhile, he tells Peggy the fire was confirmed as an electrical problem. Phil hears the news, and is not at all confident in Annie's handling of it, so he warns Grant that George may be in the firing line, which means that while he is at the Vic, so is Peggy. He tells Grant they have to get George out of the Vic. Grant says Phil will have to tell Peggy about it, and if Phil won't, then he will. Annie corners Ian about the election campaign, as it's only three weeks away and she wants to line up a sympathy story about him getting his kids back, and plenty of publicity. Ian tells her he's not interested, and just wants to do normal boring things, because he hasn't had much time to do that recently. Lenny tells Ricky they're fed up with storing the costumes at the squat, and they will have to get rid of them. Ricky says he doesn't have a vehicle, but they look around the Arches and see a convenient van, so arrange for Ricky to borrow it that evening. Phil overhears the end of this conversation, and tells Grant, so they are ready to spy on whatever is going on, in a paternal and concerned way in case Ricky is getting into something seriously criminal which is over his head. Phil and Grant are ready to give chase as the costume thieves load the van. They follow them to a skip, and after Ricky has dumped the costumes, they go to find out what the bags contain. Grant can't believe it when he finds Peggy's costume, and they decide to return them. Nick Cotton, turns up again, and sneaks into Dot's flat while the boys are painting it. He slyly palms the keys while chatting away to the young decorator, and later returns them on another pretext. Credits Main cast *Grant Mitchell - Ross Kemp *Tiffany Mitchell - Martine McCutcheon *Jeff Healy - Leslie Schofield *Alex Healy - Richard Driscoll *Ruth Fowler - Caroline Paterson *Mark Fowler - Todd Carty *Phil Mitchell - Steve McFadden *Simon Raymond - Andrew Lynford *Clare Bates - Gemma Bissix *Sonia Jackson - Natalie Cassidy *Nigel Bates - Paul Bradley *Nick Cotton - John Altman *George Palmer - Paul Moriarty *Annie Palmer - Nadia Sawalha *Peggy Mitchell - Barbara Windsor *Ian Beale - Adam Woodyatt *Lenny Wallace - Desune Coleman *Ricky Butcher - Sid Owen Guest cast * Chris - * Lorna Cartwright - Janet Dibley * Julie Haye - Karen Henthorn Category:Episode Category:1998 Episodes